A New Hope

It was the first day of class, the subject—Community Development, but supposedly it should be Development Environment of Communication (anyhow, I liked the subject). The class should start at five thirty in a small in room in the College of Social Welfare and Community Development but we waited for some time for about another thirty minutes for our other classmates to come.
While waiting I was wondering what my professor looks like, how old is he, what’s his teaching style or what would be my first impression of him? I’ve heard he’s a distinguished professor of this prominent university.

After a few minutes, he then entered the room carrying a folded old white cloth banner that he immediately spread and hung on the board. We started gazing our eyes on the blanket like banner that is embracing the wall and it seemed that it was used a hundred times already because of the faded prints on it.

He then sat on the table on the center of the aisle and started his lesson. I started to do “thin slicing” as well, I thought he would be just a typical old professor that would cradle us to boredom and sleep. Apologies, I was wrong. His hair was silver gray that was a mark of wisdom and experience, the hoarseness of his voice when he is shouting loud resonate his vivacity in teaching, and his face was marked with white patches that I think was caused by leucoderma, and I believe he was a prolific professor and his room is a fertile ground for seeds that need abundant soil and minds that need intellectual nourishment.

To start his lesson and for us to easily understand the course, he began recounting a parable. By storytelling he was able to let us understand the significance and appreciate the essence of the course.

Basically, community development is about empowering people in communities, and as he said community development is Christianity in action.

As he preached his word about community development, and the way he was telling his stories, it was so vivid, that the classroom transformed into a theater arena, we became an audience and participants as well. He brought us to the remote communities, of the abandoned and deprived, until he let us feel the piteous situations of our poor communities. While he was sharing his stories, he was integrating it with the course.

The subject should be about development, but in reality I didn’t see any development or at least a small improvement in the plight of our people who are living in the slums, our deprived farmers who are still clamoring for their land, and fishermen who are left to fish in an ungenerous  sea or the Filipino masses who are trying to survive in a times like these when the prices of basic commodities, oil, basic services and inflation rate are soaring high, corruption, crime and social injustice festers.

We can only laugh with his jokes that he is pitching each in every time but once the smoke of euphoria cleared out, we can only shake our heads that in reality instead our situation progress it retrogress.

Eventually, at eight thirty, he ended his story, but before we leave his lashing words created deep marks in our hearts with the challenges that we as community developers or development communicators have to face and a system to change. But despite all the problems and issues, it seems that there is always hope, and from hope we can start to change the stereotype culture, the stagnant plight of our country.

Before he ended, he said who among us wants to tell the same old story that will make our hearts heavy? He’s giving the same lecture for decades already, but he said he has to because nothing has been changed yet. But despite what it seems to be insurmountable problems of our country, he said there is hope, and from that hope we can start to make our future bright. And he said, his hope lies in the glittering eyes of his students, that among them will arise another lionhearted “Ka Lito” who will continue the mission empower our people and in order to empower must serve, in order to serve must be one of those he is serving.